According to a British Social Attitudes survey, more than a third of people now believe that university “just isn’t worth the amount of time and money”. These stark findings reveal a growing disconnect between public perceptions and the reality of how universities deliver value to society.
University leaders have to better explain the benefits our institutions bring. Not just to those who study with us, but to the 50 per cent of the population who don’t engage with higher education.
Universities continue to offer life-changing opportunities
In many ways, the results are unsurprising. University is a significant investment for individuals and families, and stories of graduates struggling in the current jobs market are understandably causing concern. The evidence remains, however, that a university education offers life-changing opportunities and helps develop well-rounded graduates equipped for a fast-changing world, benefiting societies not just individuals.
Research1 has shown that the public vastly overestimate graduate dissatisfaction: guessing that 40 per cent wouldn’t go to university if they could choose again, when the actual proportion is 8 per cent.
We transform lives: I firmly believe that while potential is uniformly distributed, opportunity is not. Universities play a pivotal role in enhancing social mobility. As well as supporting talented people from disadvantaged backgrounds to access education, we support them throughout their studies to a future that may have been otherwise out of reach.
Edinburgh’s Insights Programme enables students who may not have the connections of those from more affluent backgrounds to undertake placements with alumni from across the world. This enables them to build networks and secure opportunities for their future success.
Finding solutions for the world’s challenges
Universities also attract huge inward investment to support our research, tackling global and societal challenges. With world-leading expertise and the infrastructure to support discovery, they are central to the UK’s innovation ecosystem, creating jobs in companies and spin-outs with global reach.
Transformations driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence are not simply “happening to” universities – we are playing an active and important role in shaping them. Our academics are working at the frontier of these developments, advising government and helping prepare schools and the workforce for these seismic shifts.
The Data Skills Gateway, which is run by the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with all universities and colleges in South East Scotland, has already supported more than 130,000 people to improve their data skills.
Higher Education continues to deliver economic value
Studies have also shown that the public hugely underestimates the value universities bring to the UK overall. People believe aircraft manufacturing and telecommunication services contribute more in exports – whereas higher education brings in greater returns than these sectors put together.
The University of Edinburgh alone generates £7.6bn for the UK economy annually, a 34per cent increase since 2015-16. It is contradictory that as our economic contribution has increased, the public’s perceptions of our value have dropped.
While an erosion in public trust is not unique to universities, it should focus our whole sector to face the challenge head-on, recapture the public’s imagination, and demonstrate our value to our communities and country.
This article is an edited version of an opinion piece featured in The Times on 3 June 2026.
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